I just bought a 94 rs with 220,000 miles on it. new water pump, rear, radiator, some interior and body work done. the engine and trans got rebuilt at a machine shop 70,000 miles ago. for 220,000 it looks great down to the paint! 2013 inspection from aug. you can tell the guy really took care of it at and he had alot pride in it. he said he changed oil every 3,000 an had for 10 years. he went to mechanic school and him an his dad had alot of cars and worked on them etc. they had 3 other camaros, 2 jeeps, jimmy pickup, a nissan, corvette , old school oldsmobile, school bus, and a lift in their garage. really super nice people. i had no feelings of being decieved. the guy said the head gasket blew around december and he just never got to fixing it. He said if you fix the head gasket you will get another 100,00 miles easy. he was getting rid of it for room (believable with all the cars they had). i got it for $1000 an he threw in an extra unpainted good condition hood, bumper, right fender, and a set of 02 ss rims and tires. so i need advice on whether i go for getting the head gasket down at a local shop or do i go for a used engine? with goal of not spending alot of money in mind. also open to opinions on if this sounded like a good deal for $1000. thanks in advance

 

Welcome to the forums, McKenna. What state are you in? Here's the deal: A blown head gasket will cost about $800-$1200 to get replaced. A new engine is gonna cost that, plus the labor to put it in, and you have to drop the engine from the bottom (I know you can pull it from the top, but we are talking as per GM). That is a LOT of labor. So your best bet is to replace the gasket. I would have never bought a car with a blown head gasket, but given everything else, I'd say not too bad. If you are in Central CA and have a place to work, I'll come help you for a 6 pack!!

Come join us over in the lounge tomorrow (link is in my signature), and get to know the rest of the gang.

Good luck with the 94 and let us know how it goes.

Your friendly forum Mustang Hunter,


x01660

 

being its a 3.4 finding a low mile used motor is most likely not going to happen. first off is or was there coolant in the oil? if the motor has run with coolant in the oil the bearings in the motor are not going to last long.

 

I think you got a decent deal with the SS rims but I am not sure you got a decent deal for you. If you could do the head gaskets yourself there is not much risk if another issue arises. It would be a roll of the dice but with little risk. You could still part out the car and get most or all your money back but if you pay to have a head gaskets done you will be way under water if another issue shows up. Most shops should be able to give you estimates for the repair over the phone.

It is not a good idea to buy a car like this unless you are ready to put a motor in it and go over the whole car. The idea that a 3.4 can hit 320K guaranteed is pretty funny. You just have to go to the local junk yard and look at the odometer on the non-wrecked cars and see how many made it over 200k. The motors are pretty decent but normally a fan goes bad or a thermostat and kills the motor at high miles. The biggest killer of the 3.4 is head gasket failure.

I would not recommend paying someone to repair the head gasket. The chance that there is other damage to the motor is pretty high. If a mechanic finds a blown head gasket before there is any real symptoms there is not much chance that anything else is hurt. But what normally happens is the car started to use coolant and the owner adds coolant. That this point the system will not hold pressure unless the motor is running. Next the gasket opens a little more and now the upper part of the motor fills with exhaust gasses. This means NO coolant can get to the upper part of the motor and the motor over heats and maybe to the point it shut down. Motors with over 200K on them are not very forgiving to being overheated and even at the early stages of a blown head gasket hot pockets can form in your coolant system. Motor reach their hottest point about 10 minutes after they are shut off. Since a car with a damaged head gasket cannot hold pressure the coolant will boil. Those gases get trapped in the motor and cause cooling issue then next time you drive. On a real bad gasket the car will actual spit bubble with the radiator car off while it’s running. As stated above if there is any sign of coolant in the oil the motor is done.

Truthfully your best bet would be to just sell it. The only used motors you can find are going to be 17 years old. You could find a newer 1996 up 3800 with a blown motor for about the same price and find much newer motors that would fit if you want a project. Check out the thread in my sig “Project 96” to see what that would be like. Remember research first buy second.
Just a FYI Your car is not an RS, GM did not build a 1994 RS it is just a base model coupe.

 

In Arizona we have a Parts locater service. We can go to www.AARA.com and search junkyard inventories. Hopefully your state has the same. Google "Your State" "Automotive Parts Locater"

I did it and found a 1995 3.4 Camaro engine with 63,837 miles and a one year warranty. If you are in Arizona, it might be an option. No idea what they want for it though. You can call them though. 1-877-703-3583

 

Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

It is still a 17 year old motor. Warranty or no if you are going to rely on a car the motor should be gone through. If he can find a 96 up he can install a 2008 3800 in it. I don't want to come off as bashing the 3.4 but buying a 17 year old motor and going thru it seems like a lot of work for a 165 HP motor.

 

still a good find, throw some head gaskets on it and bearings in the lower and good to go. wouldnt it be cheaper than switching to a 3.8.

 

Throwing bearings into a 200K motor is not a great idea. Normally everything is out of round so far the rings do not seat and you end up with real low oil pressure. IF the car has overheated a few time or if it was just run with the failed headgasket for awhile the chances of hvy cylinder scoring is pretty high.

I did not mean to make sould like I thought he should swap a 3800 in to his 94. I was suggesting the the purchase was a mistake and he should part it out to recoupe his money. Then find a 96 or 97 abd replace the 3800 in it. Although if he is planning on have a shop do the work none of these option are going to make any sense. For what you can buy a running car for these days it would be tuff to justify any major repair unless you are 100% sure the rest of the car is in top notch shape.

How many times have we seen it here? Guy buy car with an engine issue, he repairs that then the tranny goes, he repairs that but at this point the car has been sitting so long the fuel pump gums up. By now the guy has 3K tied up in a $1800 car. When ever you buy a car you can not test drive just assume it will need a Tranny, rear and suspension work to go along with it.

 

Having learned "The Hard Way," I agree with Gorn.

I just wanted the poster to be able to consider ALL their options before deciding what to do.

 

perhaps if you could find a 3.4 with relatively few miles, you could buy it, replace the head gaskets and plugs/wires, water pump, anything else that might need/deserve replacing, and swap that in. Doing this work with the engine out of the car will make it much easier on you. Also, the 3.4 actually will come out the top of the engine bay. You just have to take out the intake manifold (isn't complicated, there are just a couple bolts that are hard to reach. I've done it a couple of times).

Wouldn't getting a newer 3800 still not work because of OBDI/OBDII difference?